Newcastle United look like they are doing it differently during the forthcoming transfer window.

Different in the sense they are actually looking to make a permanent signing.

They avoided doing that in January with only the temporary arrival of Luuk de Jong from Borussia Monchengladbach and in doing so emulated their behaviour in the summer window of 2013 when only the loan Ranger in Loic Remy arrived from Loftus Road.

This summer, United go in with a different man leading the charge when it comes to transfers.

Derek Llambias, the former managing director who did not always see eye to eye with iconic Newcastle figures like Kevin Keegan and Alan Shearer, is long gone.

And Joe Kinnear – the controversial ex-director of football who struggled to get people’s names right – was quickly found out after failing to sign a single player.

He doesn’t do interviews, instead he words carefully prepared statements and doesn’t speak on impulse.

One guarantee is there will be no quotes like: “You have to give these fans what they want” a la Keegan any time soon.

The aim behind the scenes at Newcastle is to have a solid transfer plan.

Newcastle are not too unlike Southampton at the moment in terms of both position and in terms of their game plan.

Where once the Magpies dared to do battle with Manchester United, now being talked about as “another Southampton” seems to be the aim.

Both clubs want to produce home-grown talent, they want to keep transfers tight and they want to make a profit in terms of outgoing business.

Rickie Lambert was yesterday’s example of that after the big striker went from playing in the lower leagues to signing for Liverpool, with the Saints making a tidy profit in the process.

Andy Carroll (L) celebrates with team mates after scoring for West Ham against Sunderland

The Toon Army don’t like seeing players like Yohan Cabaye or Andy Carroll sold.

In fact they hate it. Yet Charnley and United can do themselves and everybody else a favour in terms of recruitment.

A flurry of summer signings would lift the fans at the moment.

Although Newcastle won’t stop sticking to their stringent financial plans.

Both Charnley and finance director John Irving, remember, have just picked up a bonus for their performance in the 2013/14 season.

Therefore they won’t be looking to blot their copybooks by making rash panic signings this summer that end up denting respectable figures and balance sheets.

As for Mike Ashley? Well, there is some money available to spend on players. So there should be after banking £77m in TV money! But Newcastle won’t be hassled into spending that easily.

Perhaps renowned and respected fan website nufc.com summed the mood neatly not so long ago when they spoke of Ashley’s mindset and stated as long as the Buckinghamshire tycoon has “your money” he doesn’t care how the fans feel.

Geordies are a fair and patient bunch (they must be after waiting since 1969 for a trophy) and they have acknowledged that Ashley has ironed out the finances.

Some see Newcastle as a healthy club.

The main frustrations are that fans want to see their club kick on and they want to see some improved communication. Until both of those situations improve, Newcastle could well continue to tread water in mid-table for some years to come.

Only, Ashley won’t mind that scenario as long as he is banking cheques like the recent TV revenue. Being in the Premier League’s top 10 is enough to become wealthy these days, and you can do that without splashing out millions on players and challenging for the Champions League.

When the Prem kicked off in 1992 there was a theory that the rich clubs would get richer and the poor clubs would get poorer.

But then, if we could all predict the future accurately, we’d all be on our own desert island somewhere.

It’s 2015 next year, the year that, according to Back to the Future 2, we were all meant to be whizzing around on Hoverboards and USA Today employed robots to do the job of journalists!

Yet the short-term future seems bright enough for clubs who play in the top flight – even when you finish bottom.

And if “poor” old Cardiff neededcheering up, they probably felt a lot better about themselves when the cheque worth £62m that they will arm themselves with in the Championship next season arrived at the Cardiff City Stadium.

So what is the future for Newcastle?

In short they’ll try to bring in two squad players before the World Cup gets under way and continue working on bigger deals throughout the summer with a bit of outgoing business to boot.

You could say they need nine or 10 new players but that’s unrealistic. Three or four could be closer to the mark, but even ONE permanent signing would be an improvement on the last two windows.

Tenerife’s Ayoze Perez and Sunderland’s Jack Colback are both targets, while Remy Cabella and Clement Grenier are also on the radar, according to French sources. Another striker wouldn’t go amiss either.